


Hearts On Fire

by GrumpyQueer



Series: Mimi & Edmund [2]
Category: Ripper Street
Genre: F/M, Fluff, I don't know, Romance, baths, cakes, edmund bakes a cake, mimimund, ripper street - Freeform, ripper street s5
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-15
Updated: 2016-11-15
Packaged: 2018-08-31 04:42:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,380
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8564506
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GrumpyQueer/pseuds/GrumpyQueer
Summary: Mimi visits Edmund at his home for a dessert date.Warning for absurd fluff.





	

**Author's Note:**

> This is part two in the Mimi/Edmund series.

Waiting eagerly by the warm fire which crackled in his living room, Edmund Reid flicked through the contents of his newly arrived copy of _Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine_ , attempting to choose a story to continue, but finding himself ultimately unable to focus his thoughts enough to read on. Closing the magazine decidedly, he then sighed, placing it down on the table beside him and turning his gaze back to the fire, a gentle smile on his lips as he thought to himself that she must be nearing close, now, only a matter of minutes until he were with her once more. And just as he closed his eyes for a brief moment’s rest, allowing himself to sink further back into his lounge chair after the long shift he had just completed, a knock came from his door, prompting him to fling himself upward and out of his sitting room, rushing to answer it at a great speed, but not without pausing for a moment to neaten his hair in the mirror.   
  
‘Miss Morton… _Mimi_ ’, he beamed, his eyes lighting up.

‘Edmund’, she nodded amiably, smiling back at him and with a similar twinkle in her eye.  
  
Without hesitation, Edmund opened his door further and gently took her hand, leading her in to his home.

‘Please, do come in… you must be exhausted after your day.’  
  
'Oh, and you, Edmund, I am sure.’

As soon as they then closed the door behind them – blocking out all the prying eyes and gossiping snatchboxes of Whitechapel - Mimi stopped and wrapped her arms around him, leaning in for a tender kiss, their lips soft and hot as they embraced and pressed close, Edmund running a hand through her hair.

‘Dearest Edmund’, Mimi whispered.

‘I have missed you, I must confess.’

‘And I, you, Miss Morton… terribly so.’

Looking into each other’s eyes with their foreheads resting together, Edmund then held the back of her neck and kissed her gently once more, sighing as their lips released.

‘Shall we have that drink and some dessert?’

‘Indeed’, Mimi nodded eagerly.

‘I am rather parched, and whatever on earth you have in there smells magnificent, Edmund.’

When they reached the dining area, Mimi was surprised to see a beautifully set table, with very fine china, silver cutlery and crystal champagne flutes neatly placed upon the table, a single candle burning in the centre.

‘My goodness, Edmund…’ She marvelled, surveying the table and its surrounds.

‘I must say: no man has ever gone to such lengths when feeding me coffee and cake… this is, indeed, most sweet of you.’

Smiling softly - and a little proudly, it must be said – Edmund came up behind her and brought his hands up to her shoulders.

‘Shall I take your coat for you?’

‘Oh, indeed, thank you.’ She smirked at him, allowing him to slip the garment from her shoulders.

After placing her coat upon his stand he then returned to her and pulled out the chair for her to sit upon, prompting her to chuckle and place her head in her hands once she was seated down in front of the table.

‘Edmund, as I say: this is all very sweet of you, and indeed I am most grateful, but I _can_ place myself upon a chair, and quite adequately, too’, she chortled, a teasing smile upon her face.

‘Oh… I…’ he quickly stammered, looking down at her with his eyes wide and worried.

‘Indeed… and of course. I merely feared that you would be exhausted from your many long days with the theatre rehearsals for the new show, and, as you know, I am a rather proper and old fashioned with-’

‘You can relax, Edmund’, she spoke softly, looking at him reassuringly.

‘I need you to know that I do not require you to break out in to a sweat tending to me in order to win over my affections, especially when you have already won them.’

Grinning back at her, he nodded in understanding at her words and request.

‘I shall try and do so, Mimi, but I cannot promise you that I will not dote. Now… champagne?’

‘Oh God yes’, she smirked.

After Edmund had filled her champagne flute, he returned to the table with some sweet tea and a large, beautifully decorated frosted cake, Mimi smiling to herself as she watched him meticulously cut their pieces with a furrowed, focused brow.

‘Big piece for you, Madam…’

‘Why thank you, Edmund’, Mimi grinned, tilting her head to marvel at the precise layers of thick jam as he carefully eased her slice upon the dessert plate.

‘Cream?’

‘Oh, indeed…’

Placing the large dollop of thick cream upon her cake, he then looked at her expectantly to see if she wanted some more, nodding and scooping another large spoonful up in ready before being distracted by her eye contact, accidentally dropping his spoon upon the table as he watched her dip her pinkie into the cream and slowly lick it off.

‘Uhh… if…’ he stared at her for a moment, trying to recall his chain of thought and regain his focus, his eyes wide and a grin upon his face, all too familiar with her playfulness and teasing by now.

‘Please, if you want any more of absolutely anything, be certain to help yourself or do let me know, Mimi.’

He then sat and watched her take her dessert spoon and try the first mouthful, closing her eyes in pleasure and nodding most approvingly as the rich sweetness dissolved in her mouth and reached her taste buds.

‘My goodness, this is exceptional, Edmund. Which bakery made such a wonderful cake? I shall have to pay them a visit myself.’

‘Ah, well…’ he smiled before taking a sip of his tea.

‘I made this cake, in fact.’

Pausing and looking up and across at him, she gazed at him incredulously, her elbows now upon the table as she leaned in, signalling at him with her spoon.

‘You, Detective Inspector Edmund Reid, made this divine cake?’

‘Indeed… that I did’, he said proudly, nodding his head.

‘Last night, in fact.’

‘And you… _you_ also decorated it?’ she continued, entirely intrigued by this new piece of information, looking back down at the beautiful, intricate floral frosting.

‘That too’, he beamed over his teacup, wondering if she believed any of his words, even in the slightest.

‘So – and forgive me for prying thus – but where did you learn such impeccable baking and decorating skills, if I may be permitted to inquire?’

‘Well…’ He began, adjusting his glasses upon his nose and leaning in a little to reveal his secret.

‘When I was a younger lad, and before joining the Metropolitan Police in London, I was trained as a pastry chef in the town where I was born, spending quite a few years working in a bakery.’

‘Ahh, _now_ I see’, she nodded, before taking in and savouring another spoonful. 

‘And what was it that then attracted you to leave the bakery and your beautiful cakes behind to come and join the police force?’

Shifting in his seat slightly, Edmund then visibly tensed, putting down his cup of tea and losing his eye contact with Mimi for a brief moment, looking down at the plate in front of him.

‘That… _uhh_ …’

Immediately noticing his reaction, Mimi eased her spoon down and watched him closely, a concerned look upon her face, worried she had somehow opened an old wound she were not aware even existed.

‘I suppose you could say that my heart had a rather abrupt change of direction.’

‘Forgive me, Edmund, I was just rather curious and fascinated by how you may have come to find yourself protecting these streets after having a rather culinary history.’

‘Oh, no, no… please’, he smiled at her warmly.

‘I understand that it is considered a little unusual by present society for the head of a police division to be able to bake thus, and some may even propose that I have absolutely no place in the kitchen what-so-ever, but, in truth, I find all such beliefs to be nonsensical.’

Nodding and raising her glass in agreement, Mimi made a toast.

‘Absolutely, Inspector… to detectives who can bake a fearfully good cake!’

They then grinned at each other as they clinked their champagne flutes, turning back to finish their cake and discussing Mimi's day, before Edmund cleared the table once they were entirely full and stuffed.

‘Shall I fetch you some more champagne? Or a whiskey perhaps?’ 

‘Whiskey would, indeed, be marvellous’, she nodded appreciatively.

Moving over into the sitting room, they then stood by the fire and nestled near to one another sipping their drinks, Mimi’s gaze being drawn to the family portraits which stood on Edmund’s mantel, the photographs now beginning to show their years.

‘Ah, little Mathilda… doesn’t she look such a dear.’

‘That she does’, Edmund smiled, his eyes, however, appearing somewhat sullen.

Running her finger upon the gilded photo frame, Mimi paused and smiled softly back at the women whom looked out at her from within the photograph, leaning in a little to examine her closer.

‘She was very beautiful, Edmund… your wife.’

Taken slightly aback by Mimi’s words, Edmund simply stood in silence looking with her at the family he once had under his roof and care, taking a slow sip of his whiskey and suddenly wondering to himself whether he should still have the photographs up and on display, at all.

‘Yes’, he nodded, his voice calm and smooth from the liquor.

‘Emily, was it not?’ Mimi continued, slowly turning about to check the expression on his face, ever-so wary of whether she was inquiring too much over sensitive matters.

But he smiled back at her, now appearing most willing to open his heart up to her and answer her questions.

‘Indeed, Emily was her name.’

‘And she was your first love?’ Mimi smiled softly, wanting to know more of this dear woman with the gentle eyes.

Taking a deep breath in and another sip of whisky, he wrapped his arms further around Mimi and eased her close to his chest.

‘Truthfully, Emily was not my first love. A great love, yes. But my first love I met when I were still in my hometown of Canterbury, many years ago now, working together in the bakery. I was 19 when I first met her... Esther, was her name. We laughed a lot together, and after several months, we had the blessing of her father to wed. In fact, we had planned to move to the seaside and open a bakery of our own, starting a quiet life there. I believed everything to be perfectly set out. I suppose I had very different plans for my life then… _goodness_ , it feels like a lifetime ago… a past life, even.’

Edmund then began to shake his head in amazement as he revisited these memories, looking down at Mimi and holding her close in his arms and trying to connect the dots as to how quickly things move from then, to now, wondering where everything that happened in between had gone.

‘I have not thought about these events in many years’, he confessed.

‘Forgive me, Edmund, but… what stopped such plans from going ahead?’ Mimi asked nervously, her eyes watery and her heart instinctually aware of the answer to come.

‘Well…’ he cleared his throat.

‘It was only a few weeks before we were due to wed when Esther caught an influenza. The Doctor advised us that she was growing particularly weak, so I scarcely left her side. One evening, her cough grew fierce and she was running hot with a terrible fever, and by the next morning, she had been taken by pneumonia.’

Looking up into Edmund’s eyes, a tear ran down Mimi’s cheek as she thought of what she knew also then came to be, the story of Edmund in London, the accident that tore he and Emily apart, her heart aching with sadness knowing the extent of the loss he had endured.

‘I could not bear to stay there for a single day after her funeral, so I took a train to London with little more than the clothes upon my back, and walked in to the recruitment office for the Metropolitan Police.’

Bursting into tears and entirely overwhelmed with the story of his heartbreak, Mimi sobbed into his chest, with Edmund patting her hair calmly.

‘Why are you crying, my dear?’ He smiled at her lovingly, tears now swelling in his own eyes.

‘Life can be so terribly cruel’, Mimi choked.

‘In many ways’, he nodded in agreement, leaning down and kissing her cheek.

‘But with loss, there sometimes comes life. I would not dare say that there is always a silver lining, because I most certainly do not believe that to be true. Unexplainable, horrible thing happen in this world, and I wish I had an answer for why this is so. But, sometimes, you find good beside the bad – not a goodness born from the heartbreak and loss, but a goodness which coexists alongside it… a goodness which is separate, which is merely _there_ , which has always been, and perhaps if we are lucky, this goodness finds its way into our lives just when we thought it did no longer exist, right as we are drowning in all the darkness of the world, reminding us that there is something to live for.’

As Mimi’s tears slowed, Edmund then lifted his hand up to her cheek and wiped away her tears, using the same sleeve to then wipe away his own.

‘You, Miss Morton… dear Mimi… you are living proof to me of such a goodness in the world, reminding me that I am a lucky man, indeed, to even merely know of you.’

 

***

 

Standing back and watching the bath slowly fill with hot water, Edmund looked at Mimi and grinned proudly.

‘Running hot water in the washroom… Is this not a futuristic, fine fancy?’

'Quite so, Edmund’, she smirked back at him, amused and adoring the look of wonderment upon his face.

'Now you, my dear…’ He walked over to her, his sleeves still rolled up from working the taps.

'I would have you close your eyes for me for a few short moments.’

'Oh dear me, _what_ is he up to now?’ She jested, letting him raise her hands up to place over her eyes.

'You shan’t be throwing a pie in my face, shall you? That is, indeed, all the rage at the moment, is it not?’

‘Goodness, no’, he chuckled.

‘Just one moment…’

Edmund then quickly lit the candles he had placed about the room prior to her arrival, before gently easing in a handful of dried rose petals to the hot water within the filling tub. He then snuck out of the wash room to start the record he had already placed on the gramophone in his hallway.

After coming back in and turning off the lights, he then walked up to Mimi and gently took her hands down from over her eyes.

Smiling widely, she looked about the dimmed room - the soft light from the flames flickering upon the walls, the rose petals floating in the sweetly fragrant bath - and then leant in to kiss Edmund tenderly upon the lips.

Without saying a word, she turned herself about and gestured for him to untie her corset. He then ran both his hands down the curves of her waist and began to slowly untie the ribbon, leaning in and kissing her bare shoulder, lingering his lips close to her skin.

Once all of her garments lay on the floor, she then turned and began to unbutton Edmund’s shirt for him as he watched her with a soft smile, with Mimi continuing to ease off all of his layers until laughing when she realised he was wearing nothing but his small reading glasses, finally lifting them off his nose and closing them.

Standing in front of one another then, entirely bare and illuminated by the candlelight, Mimi moved in and took his hand.

'You first, and I shall follow.’

Edmund nodded at her lovingly, looking down at her beautiful, bare body, before climbing in to the tub, bending his knees so as to fit. Mimi then climbed in, gasping as her feet entered the hot water, and then eased herself down so that her back lay upon his chest.

Placing his arms down between her own and wrapping them around her belly, Edmund rested his chin upon her head.

‘Thank you, Edmund…’ Mimi whispered, her eyes closed and heart calm.

'It’s such a pleasure to soak sore bones, and to simply be here with you, thus.’

‘Indeed.’ He smiled warmly, closing his eyes and relaxing further in response to her touch, her finger trailing a drop of water up his arm.

As the record’s beautiful, soulful melody echoed around them, they soaked in the sound and the comfort of holding one another, knowing there was no pressure to speak or say something simply for the sake of filling a silent pause.

And after many moments of stillness, Edmund moved his hand from Mimi’s belly and took her own hand in his, their fingers interlocking and resting upon her leg as they tenderly ran their thumbs upon each other’s hand.

‘Mimi…’ Edmund whispered in her ear.

‘I must tell you that there is something I wished to say to you on this night.’

‘And what that, dearest Edmund?’ she turned her head a little on his chest, looking up into his eyes.

As he gazed back, preparing to confess his love in its entirety and express his desire to join their lives together, his thoughts unexpectedly and abruptly began to flash back to his past, allowing the worry that he shan’t bring her any good seep in and steal the words which he had so hoped to say to her, here and now, in what felt like the perfect moment. And that same fear that he shall bring her nothing but death and decay continued to violently washed over him, causing him to pause and psychically shudder.

‘Edmund, is everything quite alright?’ Mimi tensed in response to the obvious shift within him, lifting herself up slightly.

When she turned herself completely around to face him, she saw the tears swelling in his eyes and running down his cheek, finding herself suddenly crying with him.

‘Please, Edmund… _please_ do tell me what it is that troubles you.’

Unable to look the women he loved in the eyes out of his fear and shame, he then tried to hide his face in his hands but was stopped by Mimi gently taking them and holding them close to her heart.

‘I… I do not deserve you, Miss Morton,’ he began to weep, his eyes red and downcast. 

She then tilted her head as he rested his upon her shoulder, closing his eyes and sobbing as she ran her hand through his hair to calm him.

‘Deserve me? Edmund, my dear, I shall be the judge of such a thing, and those horrible cruelties which life threw at you in the past shall not define your future.’

‘Now…’ she eased his chin up with her hand, causing him to look back into her eyes, his heart warming and his gaze unfaltering, leaning his head in close.

‘I cannot be entirely sure what it is you wanted to say to me on this night, however, I have my suspicions of what it may be’, she smiled knowingly.

‘And I shall be _here_ , dearest Edmund, beside you now and into the future, and not because I pity you and the tragedies of your past. No, I shall be here with you because I wish to be, because your big, kind heart warms my own, and because I have never been more certain that there is no man _more_ deserving of my love, than you.’

Lifting up his shoulders, and with his watery eyes fixed upon her own, Edmund leaned forward and kissed her slowly, holding her head in his hands.

‘ _I love you._ ’

‘Oh yes, I know’. She nodded, smirking at him with a glint in her eye. 

‘And I, Edmund, love you.’

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading. As usual, apologies for my poor grammar / everything. I did my best. 
> 
> Part three will be coming soon.


End file.
